Customer Reviews

Where the Rainbow Ends

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well written, characters nicely fleshed-out. But dark. Very, very dark. Not a shred of humor or levity anywhere. Ne relief from the suffering of all the characters. Another story of lives rent and ravaged by AIDS and other cruel twists of fate. How many of these can we read? For those who have not experienced "the life," this is, however, an excellent keyhole through which to view it. But I imagine there are few "uninitiates" who will read, much less purchse, such a novel. I fear it's more "preaching to the choir." Currier's style is engaging, but the protagonist is so mired in self-pity that it becomes difficult to empathize after a point. Perhaps writing this was cathartic for Currier, and perhaps his next offering will be more satisfying, because he IS a great writer. Check it out from a library because it's unlikely you'll want a second read.

I loved this book! epic and breathtaking in scope with an easy relaxed, fluent style; this book takes you on an incredible "gay odyssey" I have never read a novel that so effectively encompasses all aspects of gay life and sensibilities. Sexy, romantic, sad and melancholy; this book takes us on a wonderful journey as we navigate the highs and lows of Robbie, a young gay "everyman". Through his eyes we witness the sexy hedonism of the Manhattan gay scene in the late 70's, the AIDS ravaged Reagan years of the early to mid 80's and the 90's AIDS activism of LA. Effectively incorporating historical fact with fiction, Currier has painted a fascinating portrait of Robbie and his four friends; their loves, losses, achievements and disappointments. Thematically there are many, many important issues relating to gay life and the homosexual identity being addressed here: questions of faith, religion, and spirituality and whether these can apply to a modern gay man. The importance of family; Currier raises the essential question, What constitutes a family? Is family by blood or is true family friendship? Issues regarding contemporary sexual politics are also discussed particularly the politics of AIDS activism and the attitudes that big business and government had towards the disease in the late 80's and early 90's. This is a beautiful, eloquent, sexy and at times a disturbing chronicle of the ravages of AIDS and the impact that the disease has had on a whole generation od gay men. Currier gives us an uncanny insight in to the mind of Robbie never compromising the gritty realism, this novel tells it like it is. I would recommend this novel as essential reading not just for every gay men but for anyone who has ever has been touched by AIDS or who has had to struggle against adversity.

Michael Leonard

Stephen Mead, author of Hang Onto Your Teeth

If universities ever begin studies on the early days of the AIDS pandemic in America, "Where The Rainbow Ends" should be considered a must-read. Eloquent, passionate, full of heart: this book is a seminal masterpiece.

It is 1978, and the narrator, Robbie Taylor is 19 years old when he arrives in New York. After a trail of bad luck things begin to look when he meets Vince, who takes him under his wing and introduces him to the New York gay culture and ready sex. But Robbie is looking for more than casual sex; he seeks an emotional connection, something permanent. He eventually finds this, after a false start, in Nathan, and they set up home together. About his time the threat of AIDS emerges, and new troubles and worries beset Robbie and the small group of close friends he has amassed through Vince. The story takes us through this, along with the lives of Robbie's friends, or "family" as he eventually comes to regard them: Vince, Jeff and Denise. Loving relationships are formed, sometimes broken, and tragic losses experienced. Robbie struggles with these shattering events, he struggles too with the concept of family, his faith and a sense of purpose. (He eventually recognises a parallel with Job.)
This is admittedly a long winded book, full of meticulous detail, and a sombre, at times near morbid read, even before the troubles begin. The writing is pensive and convincing; it would be hard to imagine that the writer has not experienced the events about which he writes and the emotions he describes.
The book could well have benefited from a careful reduction of some of the long drawn out sections, and been occasionally lightened with a little wit or humour; as it is the mood never seems to lift above the melancholy. It is nonetheless a very moving yet positive story, and when Robbie finally brings the story up to date (1992) there is a true air of hope.

In beautiful and uncluttered prose, this book manages to tell the very moving story of Robbie Taylor as he arrrives in New York in 1978 and meets the people who will change his life forever. In an almost epic sweep,the author makes the personal historical and the historical personal through the stories that are told in this wonderful book. The novel achieves what many before it have tried as these character's stories become an almost complete compendium of gay life in America in the last twenty years. This is also a stirring tribute to the many who have died of AIDS. At the risk of sounding trite, this book made me laugh and it made me cry, something very few books have ever managed to do - it's full of the stuff of life.  

I was astonished by the insight and scope of this book. Jameson Currier has managed to tell the large story of what it is like to be a gay man growing of age in the 1970s and into the troubles of the AIDS epidemic on both a personal and historical level as well as tackling such issues as relationships, faith, and families. This is an amazingly accomplished work not only because of the deft and inspired use of language, but because Currier's powerful accumulation of detail transforms a tragic story into an emotionally uplifting literary experience.

Currier is an accomplished short story writer, and it shows in this first novel; the reader repeatedly has a sense of closure, only to experience delighted relief that this is indeed long fiction and the more is to come. Packed with the stuff of life, this rewarding work might be termed a "gay immigrant" novel, a saga about men and women who leave their hometown and families, move to the big cities, and fashion new lives in an alien land. Currier (Dancing on the Moon: Short Stories About AIDS, Viking, 1993) takes his characters from the late 1960s, through the hedonistic 1970s, and into the AIDS-riddled 1980s and politically charged 1990s. Their stores are ones of profound loss -- of biological families, of friends, and of intimate relationships. It's little wonder that Currier draws clear parallels to the story of Job -- the underlying question is one of faith that, on the other side of pain, there is meaning after all. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Roger W. Durbin, University of Akron Library, Ohio Library Journal. October 15, 1998

This book touched me so much that I actually cried through most of it. And I'm not a crier.

It's really the cumulative impact of the story, rather than the writer's skill, that makes this book worth the effort. By the time I finished it, I really felt the author had provided a well-rounded main character. I give Currier a lot of credit, though, for trying to encapsulate decades of gay life in a single story. Since I am roughly the same age as the protagonist, I found the observations about the changes in gay life over the years to be interesting and (generally) spot on.

This compelling, wonderfully compasionate novel by Jameson Currier is a must for anyone attempting to understand the heart and soul of love, loss and recovery in the gay community. Never before have I had the pleasure of becoming so intimately involved with a writers characters that I actually wept -- tears of grief, frustration, anger and finally peace and joy. So closely based upon fact, this book is one you simply cannot read without becoming a better person. I highly recommend it if you dare to touch your own soul and connect with the lives of others.